There have been several posts recently concerning the heat wave which we are currently experiencing. It is hot, plain and simple. But, all-time high recorded temperatures for 15 of the then 48 states occured during July or August of 1936. These states, along with their maximum temperatures follow: Arkansas-120, Indiana-116, Kansas-121, Louisiana-114, Maryland-109, Michigan-112, Minnesota-114, Nebraska-118, New Jersey-110, North Dakota-121, Pennsylvania-111, South Dakota-120, Texas-120, West Virginia-112, Wisconsin-114. A couple of other tid-bits of interest to me: The highest recorded temperature in U.S. occured in California, 134 degrees on July 11, 1913. Also, the maximum recorded temperature in each of the 50 states is 100 degrees or higher. The highs for Alaska and Hawaii are 100. In the other 48, the high temps exceed 100 degrees. Makes interesting reading but it is going to feel just as hot tomorrow as it did today. Dan

Jeff: I think that the drought which led to the dustbowl conditions started in the early thirties but continued through 1936. Certainly the high temps would soon evaporate any moisture which fell. Not a good time for central U.S. Dan

Those highs are eye opening, but it is not the extreme high for a time that worries me, but the average that runs over a year or so. I wasn't alive in the 30s, but do remeber one winter when I was aobut 7 years old (around 1955) that I played outside in my shirt sleeves evey Saturday all winter long. That was unusual though. In thsi area for as long as I can remeber we nromally get 3 or 4 snows of 6 to 10 inches every winter, and temperatures frequenlty faliing below zero several times.. It has been several years since I have seen these conditions though.

You are right, John. A record high temp for one day is of little importance other than providing a new entry in the weather records. You may remember this John, we had a 2-3 year cycle of unusually high summer temps. along with below average rainfall around 1951-53. I lived in Oregon County, near West Plains, MO. No record high, but much warmer than usual. An older brother had just completed his two years in army service and had saved a fair amount of money. He invested that in cattle and lost all of it due to the hot dry weather. Very little grass during the summer, no hay for winter feeding. Most farmers were having to sell livestock so after feeding them for a year or so he had to sell for little, if any, more than he had paid. Dan

I was only 5 years old in 53, so i don't remeber much aobut it. i do rmemeber though that when we bought the farm in 62 and I put in the water lines we had to put them aobut 30 inches deep to be sure they didn't freeze. The last few years, a foot deep woudl have been more than